About the Book
This Halloween the monsters are real, and they are coming to your house! Shadow House Publishing opens the crypt and unleashes a MONSTER CARNIVAL! Under the bed and behind the closet, in dank basements and gloomy attics...they are the whisper in the dark, the growl in the corner...they are everything we fear, and all that we secretly desire...they are us...they are MONSTERS! MONSTER CARNIVAL: An Anthology of Things, Beasts, & Creatures, edited by supernatural horror author and critic WILLIAM P. SIMMONS, is an evocative anthology featuring the monsters that terrified us when we were children...and still do. They're all here, a paranormal parade of the dead, demonic, and devilish! Vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghouls, and blobs...unnamable entities and marvelous monstrosities, and murderous severed hands...every crawling, lurching, leaping, shambling THING that ever stalked a printed page. They were the original bad boys of horror-the ugly outcast, the despised loner, the creature from the grave-basement-coffin-outer space-that everybody loved to be scared by (even as we secretly rooted for them). From ancient folklore bogies to inter-dimensional demons, this funerary feast of 21 classic and rare stories makes fear fun again. Children of the night stalk in 21 tales from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten, from the gothic era to the 20th century. Contributors include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, E.F. Benson, H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Dunsany, and H.G. Wells alongside fear specialists Frank Belknap Long, William Hope Hodgson, Henry S. Whitehead, and Robert E. Howard. Some chilling tales make their first appearance in decades, including monstrosities from Edward Lucas White, Victor Roman, Anthony M. Rud, Hume Nisbet, Ulric Daubeny, Augustus Hare, and several others. Editor William P. Simmons leads this spectral spectacle, hand-picking supernatural, psychological, and weird tales for every torrid taste. From the bloody behemoths of pulp magazines to the terror titans of the Lovecraft circle, from classic supernatural monsters to mutants and slithery things with tentacles, this compendium of long legged beasties and 'things that go bump in the night' features an Introduction discussing the appeal of the monster in fiction. Monster Carnival Table of Contents: - Here There Be Monsters, William P. Simmons
- Amina, Edward Lucas White
- Four Wooden Stakes, Victor Rowan
- The Hounds of Tindalos, Frank Belknap Long
- Mark of the Beast, Rudyard Kipling
- The Demon's Spell, Hume Nisbet
- Jumbee, Henry S. Whitehead
- The Spectre Spiders, W.J. Wintle
- The Werewolf, Eugene O'Neil
- At the End of the Corridor, Evangeline Walton
- The Hoard of the Gibbelins, Lord Dunsany
- The Lurking Fear, H.P. Lovecraft
- The Sea Raiders, H.G. Wells
- Lot 249, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Voice in the Night, William Hope Hodgson
- The Vampire of Cronglin Grange, Augustus Hare
- Rukorokubi, Lafcadio Hearn
- The Death of Halpin Frayser, Ambrose Bierce
- The Beast with Five Fingers, W.F. Harvey
- The Sumach, Ulric Daubeny
- Ooze, Anthony M. Rud
- The Thing in the Hall, E.F. Benson
About the Editor: William P. Simmons is a supernatural fiction author, critic, & journalist. Eight of his stories earned Honorable Mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. By Reason of Darkness was praised by Publisher's Weekly, All Hallows & Cemetery Dance. Graham Masterton, Hugh B. Cave & T.M. Wright endorsed his fiction. He has interviewed such authors as Richard Matheson, F. Paul Wilson & Caitlin Kiernan. SHADOW HOUSE PUBLISHING preserves our horror heritage!